The Sri Lanka circuit (the morning of Day 7) - Pinnawela elephant orphanage - The 11th of December 2011

The Pinnawela elephant orphanage ows its name to the fact that the small elephants are kept there whilst their parents are used in the fields returning only after their day's work. 

The place was crowded with local visitors who outnumbered the few foreigners. We wandered about the whole area, though there was nothing really special to be seen.

I couldnt resist approaching the huge pachyderms and touch them, though at one particular moment I felt I shouldn't have been so close.

One of the highest moments of the visit was supposed to be the crossing of the village of  groups of working elephants towards the river to refresh themselves under the guidance of their guardians, for which we all headed to the village, at which entrance the following notices were to be found (interesting ecological approach...).

 

Many Sihalese ethnic groups mixed with a lot of us started gathering along the main village commercial street heading towards the river awaiting the moment. In no time the street was packed on both sides.

The Sri Lanka circuit (the morning of Day 7) - on the way to Pinnawella - the 11th of December 2011

Our last day in Sri Lank would be spent at the Pinnawella elephant orphanage, Colombo and then Negombo, which seemed a lot for just one day, even if we left fairly early in the morning (like always).

Somewhere on the way to Pinnawella we were told to get off the bus to see a huge number of bats hanging from trees along the whole road. I must confess I was impressed the moment I laid eyes on them ... they were there by the hundreds and some could be seen flying about, which I would not have expected (at least in broad day light).

More presents for the children of Calheta de São Miguel, Cape Verde.

Some of the latest presents for the children of Calheta have been handed out, though there are still a few missing, which I hope will be handed out before the three "godmothers" leave Portugal.

One of the reasons I like to start packing everything in advance is precisely not to "forget" anything, once we are now dealing with almost seventy children and things have got to be organised before hand.

A back pack for Diva with her photo printed on it (left) and a photo album with the photos of the last workshop she participated in (right).

Photo albums for Kevin, Sonia (left) and Bete (right) with the photos of the last workshop they participated in.

 Photo albums for Sonia, Bete, Ineida and Kevin

Presents for little Leidina (left) and birthday presents for Eunice (right).

Presents for Jessica and Jessica Ramos

The Sri Lanka circuit (the evening of Day 6) - The Nuwara Eliya village and back to Kandy - The 10th of December 2011

Soon after Nuwara Eliya was discovered by Sir Samuel Baker in 1819 an English village was established, whose remains can still be admired, disclosing a typical English architecture.

By the time we reached it the weather had changed and it started raining, though we still managed to wander around and visit a local market.

The drive back to Kandy ended up being too tiring because both city streets and roads we drove along seemed to be overcrowded ... there were traffic jams everywhere, for which there was no explanation until by accident Christian looked out and realised there was a total eclipse of the sun, this being the reason why most Sinhalese were on "holiday" celebrating the occasion, they believed was a blessing.

We somehow managed to make it back to the hotel in time to take some photos of the last moments of the eclipse.

The Sri Lanka circuit (the afternoon of Day 6) - Nuwara Eliya tea plantation - The 10th of December 2011

There were no tea pluckers  to be seen in the extended velvety carpets of tea plants spread  over the hills, which according to the information provided was due to a local holiday (which we would later find out was not the exact reason).

We were shown into the tea manufacturing premises on a visit that would take us through the long processing of the tea leaves, which turned out to be very interesting.

According to what we were told the tea plant is cultivated  at three levels of altitude - from sea level up to 600 metres (low grown), from 600 to 1200 metres (mid grown) and higher than 1200 (high grown) with its harvesting starting from the third year of the plant's life. Traditionally it is the women who harvest the tea, picking together two leaves and a bud (known as a pekoe).

The harvested leaves are taken to the factory immediately after and spread out for 18 hours on nylon nets which are assailed from below with a flow of warm air (the drying phase), they are then broken up by a special metal roller (the rolling phase), followed by being place in a cold, ventilated room in which by means of a enzyme action the tea is made to ferment by oxydyzing the tannin of the leaves in a two hour process (the fermentation process), at which point the tea assumes its characteristics. The following phase halts the fermentation process and lowers the humidity of the leaves from 65% to 2% (baking phase), after which the leaves are separated according to the different characteristics (sellection phase).

Soon after the visit we were given some time to buy some tea at the factory store and although many of us had already bought tea we couldn't resist getting some of the best quality one.




Before driving back to Kandy, we stopped at a former English village bearing the same name as the hills.